June

With expectations rising that Chief Justice William Rehnquist will retire at the end of the current Supreme Court term in June, blocking an extremist Bush nominee is an epic battle facing the American people. One of the worst legacies of the Rehnquist court is the elimination of legal protections allowing the death penalty to operate unhindered. Rehnquist is famous for having said, “It’s too bad that drawing and quartering has been abolished.”

Last month, the media activist group FreePress held the second National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Mo. I was fortunate enough to attend along with over 2,000 other media activists from across the country. The sheer number of attendees was inspiring. It feels good to know that so many other people feel that corporately owned media is doing the public a great disservice.

A recent New York Times article by Roger Cohen echoed 1950. Titled “1945’s Legacy: A Terror Defeated, Another Arrives,” the article asserted that communism and fascism were both “totalitarian” monsters and suggested that communism may have even been the greater evil, and that many in the “West” still have illusions about communism. Cohen was recycling redbaiting homilies to provide fanfare for Bush’s recent speeches abroad. His assertions are not only false but also a justification for imperialist aggression.

In his speech to the Take Back America conference in Washington, June 3, Bill Moyers described a November 2003 episode of his PBS show, “Now, With Bill Moyers.” He said he interviewed working people who spoke of their yearning for livable wage jobs and national health care — dreams deferred as the nation’s wealth streams instead into corporate bank accounts. Watching the show was Kenneth Tomlinson, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and a close ally of George W. Bush.

Let’s see if we have this straight. Let’s give unlimited powers of spying, harassment and imprisonment, targeting U.S. residents and citizens of other countries, to U.S. agencies which have committed documented acts of torture, jailed thousands for years without so much as an indictment, and compiled files on millions of Americans.

The People’s Weekly World interviewed William (Bill) Lucy, president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, at its 34th annual convention in Phoenix, May 29. Martin Frazier, contributing editor, conducted the interview.

A May 29 New York Times article by Robert Pear, “Health Leaders Seek Consensus Over Uninsured,” reported that “24 ideologically disparate leaders representing the health care industry, corporations and unions, and conservative and liberal groups have been meeting secretly for months to seek a consensus on proposals to provide coverage for the growing number of people with no health insurance.” Pear has done a real service in bringing this development — and its dangers — to light.